SCRIPTURE LESSON.

THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Wait for the promise of the Father, which, said he, ye have heard of me

For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Acts 1-4, 5.

A new heart will I also give you and a new Spirit will I put within you, and I will put my Spirit within you. Ezek. 26, 26-27.

I indeed baptize you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Matt. 3, 11.

It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Joel 2, 28.

Jesus Christ puts special emphasis on this promise of the Spirit as if it was the only promise of the Father. This is really the center of all the promises. The promises for the conviction of sinners — the pardon of sin — peace with God — purity of heart — growth in grace — perfect love — all center in this promise of the Holy Spirit.

It is very necessary in discussing this subject that we should know whether the baptism with the Holy Spirit is clearly promised in the scriptures. If it is not promised clearly and definitely in the word of God that we Christian people shall receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit, then it is presumption in us to seek it or to think of obtaining it; and if any man claims that he has received this baptism of the Spirit, it is simply another evidence of the perversity and sinfulness of his own heart, for it is utterly impossible to have a special experience that is not included definitely in any of the promises that God has given us. It is the wildest fanaticism to suppose that we can get blessings that are not mentioned or offered in this precious word.

If the baptism with the Holy Spirit is promised, then its obligation rests upon us, with all the weight of God's command, and we will not be excusable if we allow this promise of God to be unfulfilled in us, any more than a sinner will be excused in neglecting the promise of pardon. The reason many sinners are not born of God, is because many Christians are not baptized with the Holy Spirit.

In the 26th Chapter of Ezekiel, the 26th and 27th verses, you will observe that the Lord made this promise to his ancient people:

“A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you, and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and ye shall keep My judgments and do them.”

Now here is a definite promise that we shall have a new spirit, that we shall be regenerated; and an additional promise that God will put His Spirit within us — the filling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

In the second chapter of Joel, the 28th and 29th verses, God makes this statement again, saying:

“It shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.”

Eight hundred years before the coming of Christ this was specifically and positively declared, that God would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, servants and handmaidens, old men and young men and women should receive this wonderful baptism.

Now, I do not believe that the Lord has to say a thing twice to make it true or forcible, but here we have the second promise of the same thing, renewed 800 years before Christ. We have this definite promise that after the sufferings of Christ, there should come upon all flesh the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and we are told how the believers would act, and what they should do.

1. This is always a Divine Baptism. John could baptize with water, but not with the Holy Spirit. The church can baptize with water, but all the saints on earth or in heaven cannot baptize with the Holy Spirit. John says: “I indeed baptize you with water, but He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Now. there are two things prominent in John's ministry. The first was the blood of the Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world — “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world/’ and the other was the baptism of the Holy Spirit, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” “He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” The blood of the Lamb was shed for wicked men and women; the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a free gift to all willing and obedient disciples, and these two things are the great needs of the world — the blood of the Lamb to take away the sin and condemnation of the world, to cleanse the temple from all uncleanness; the baptism of the Spirit upon the believers to enable them to triumph against all their enemies, to make them superior to all their surroundings, to give them victory in all their difficulties. These two things were specifically promised by John.

Not only did John refresh the minds of the people, but Jesus Himself also stated the matter definitely — that He would baptize with the Holy Spirit. He said: “I will send the promise of the Father upon you.”

“John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.”

Did you ever notice that the only thing Jesus did not do when He was on earth was to baptize people with the Holy Spirit? He forgave his people their sins, He fed the people when hungry in the wilderness, He saved his disciples from perils of the sea, He gave them power over their enemies, He gave them power over evil spirits, to cast out devils and raise the dead. Yet He did not baptize them with the Holy Spirit, although it was prophesied He should.

Why didn’t Jesus baptize with the Holy Spirit while on earth? It may be a little hard to explain why He did not, but I think this is the reason: He didn’t give out anything to other people until He had first tried and tested it himself. He received the baptism Himself, but He had to demonstrate that the power of the Spirit was sufficient for all services and all sufferings and all emergencies. And so after He had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, after He was tried and tested, after He had by the Eternal Spirit offered himself a sacrifice for sin, after He had shed His blood, after He had been raised by the Spirit from the dead, after He had manifested Himself to His disciples, He ascended to the Father and obtained for others that same baptism which He had for Himself. Thus Peter says: ‘This Jesus hath God raised

up whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being exalted by the right hand of God and having obtained of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He (Jesus Christ) hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.”

2. The promise of the Baptism is a definite and specific blessing, I will give you another Comforter.”

The disciples may have had a great many questions, and may have wondered whether the promise was to be fuelled. Yet there was no room to doubt after Jesus had made this statement so definitely and explicitly that if He went away He would send the promise of the Father. They knew He had gone away, they knew He was true, that He would keep His word, and they did not have anything else to do but obey and pray, waiting for the promise to be realized.

What a model this is for the church of all ages! This church and every church in Christendom has the definite and distinct promise of the Father renewed by John and repeated by the Lord Jesus Himself. Every church has the promise that it shall receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The early church tarried and prayed and examined themselves until the Holy Spirit came. This is clearly the hunger that should be in our own hearts.

3. The Promise is Universal and Perpetual. Some people suppose that it was to be a special gift to the apostles, or, at most, to the disciples, but Joel settles this point in his prophecy for he says: “It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.”

When Pentecost came, some of the people said: “These men are drunk. Just look. These men are drunk.” And Peter, replying to the charge said: “This is not drunkenness. This is that.” This is not drunkenness, this is not excitement, this is not fanaticism, this is not imagination. But “this is that. This is that which was spoken by the prophet.” “It shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams; and on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit and they shall prophesy.,, This is that. Not something else, not a blessing, not a growth, but this is the promise that was made to the old Jews 1400 years before, that the Holy Spirit should be poured out on all flesh, and this is that. There is no mistake, no doubt about it. This is that which was prophesied by the prophets in the ancient days. Then he goes on and says “The promise is unto you” — you devout men gathered from all nations of the earth. It is for you. “More than that he says the promise is to your children.” Then “More yet, the promise is to all them that are afar off.” That is the Gentiles. We “were gentiles afar off, without hope and without God in the world. Then he adds, “even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” This is that which was prophesied to be poured out upon all flesh, “yes, upon them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” And this seals the promise for every believer in Jesus Christ, for every child of God throughout all time.

4. The Promise of the Father was for an Abiding Spirit. What a comfort that must have been to the disciples. They were troubled and sorrowful about Jesus' going away. He had said to them, “If I go away, I will send you another Comforter," and I imagine they said to Him, “How long will He stay with us, Lord? You have been with us three years and now You are going away, and we can see You no more. You talk about sending another Comforter; how long is He going to stay with us?" Jesus told them, “He shall abide with you forever." Don't talk about His ascension. The blessed Son of God has sent us a Comforter to abide with us forever. This Holy Spirit is never going away. His power and His grace are never to be withdrawn, He is never to be separated from the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.

How much better this is than even to have Jesus in the flesh. Jesus in the flesh could have been at only one place at a time. Jesus in the flesh would have been compelled to be absent from us much of the time, but Jesus in the Spirit can abide in us forever. Receive the Holy Spirit. He is better than a blessing. Beloved, when you seek a blessing you get a wonderful experience of grace and it enthuses you, but somehow or other it loses its freshness; but when you receive Him, Who comes to stay, He gives you a new experience of saving grace and saving power every day of your life.

1. The Promise of the Father is the Great Gift of God to the church. The Comforter is the ascension, the coronation gift of the Father and the Son to believers. When kings were crowned they gave their friends something to remember their coronation day. King Edward gave presents to a thousand friends that they might remember his coronation day. So this is the crowning work of the Son of God on earth. It is the evidence that the Son of God has been glorified. It is the token that His sufferings and His work have been accepted, that the Eternal God has been pleased with the work that Jesus did on earth in redeeming man. Jesus completed the work of man's redemption when He was crucified and raised from the dead. His work on earth was done. But in order to be qualified and empowered and in order to know that Jesus is glorified, His disciples needed to have something further; they needed to know where Jesus was, just as they knew the other facts. The question came to them: Where was Jesus? They had seen Him crucified, they had seen Him resurrected, they had seen Him when gravitation turned the other way and he ascended into Heaven. Now, where was He? He had said to them, “I go to My Father and your Father, and I go to My God and your God, and if I go away I will send you another Comforter.” So that the only way they could know that Jesus was glorified was by the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Suppose I illustrate it in this way. A friend of mine is going to India, and says: “When I get into India I will write you a letter and send you some specimens of the country.” So I go down to the wharf and see him on board ship. Amid tears and farewells I watch the ship until it gets far off on the sea and I go back home and think about him. I wonder if he will be all right and if any accidents will happen to him. When the time comes for him to land, I wonder if he has landed and I get uneasy about him. I am concerned. I remember that he promised when he got there that he would send me a letter. At last here comes a mail carrier with a letter. I look at the address. It is his handwriting; and while I am looking at it the express messenger brings me a package. I open it and there are the specimens my friend has sent me from India, and the first thing I say is, “He is there, he is there, he is safe, he is safe.”

And so these disciples had seen Jesus crucified, they had seen him raised from the dead, they had seen the empty tomb, they had seen him on the way to Emmaus, they had no doubt of his resurrection, they had seen him go away. Where had he gone? Well, they looked at him as he went up into the sky until a cloud received him up out of their sight He had gone away. And as they were gazing up into the sky with longing, loving hearts, an angel appearing to them, told them that he should come again, and they went to the place of prayer and consecration. They remembered that he had said, “If I go away, I will send you another Comforter.” They knew that Jesus was true, and they had nothing to do but wait. Perhaps some of them had doubts. I do not know but that Peter was a little uneasy in the upper chamber. He may have wanted to go out and talk about Jesus. We know he did some things that Jesus had to undo. Mary may have been somewhat despondent about that time. She had kept many things in her heart, but now He was gone. She may have had some melancholy thoughts. But they all stayed there and prayed and examined themselves and looked into one another’s hearts, and came closer and closer together until they were all with one accord in that upper room, and when they had prayed there came a sound — not from the east — not from the west — it came from Heaven. There came a sound from Heaven. They knew the sign. They were overpowered and overwhelmed. They bowed beneath the Spirit's power. Every fibre of their being was thrilled with the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit; their bodies were filled with the Divine Spirit, their faces glowed with rapture, their eyes kindled with celestial light, they ventured to look at each other and Peter saw tongues of fire on James' head, and James saw tongues of fire on John's head, and John saw tongues of fire on Mary's head, and round and round tongues of fire fell upon each one in the room, and then lifting up their voices they began to praise God, and while some were mocking Peter says, 'This is that which was prophesied by the prophet Joel." This is that. And they knew that Christ had reached the throne. They kn ew that he had been glorified. They knew that he was at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, thinking of them and sending them the gifts that he had obtained by his own obedience and sacrifice. They knew that Jesus was glorified because he had sent them the Holy Spirit. And every man that receives the Holy Spirit knows that Jesus is glorified, just as well as if he were to see him there with his own eyes.

This is the coronal gift, the ascension gift to convince the church that God has glorified Jesus Christ.

This baptism of the Holy Spirit was the charm and power of the early church. They were not running after many things as Christian people seem to be running today. The old prophets wondered when the Spirit of Christ led them to prophesy concerning the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. The angels were also curious about this thing. Peter said they desired to look into it. They wondered how God could come to sinful man, take away his sins, wash his soul, and then Himself come in and dwell in this temple. It is the marvel of the ages. The early church greatly prized this gift of the Holy Spirit, so that immediately after the baptism of the disciples when the people said, “What must we do?” Peter said, “Repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of your sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”

When there was a revival in Samaria and word came that a great many had been converted, the apostles gathered together and sent Peter and John down to Samaria, not to take up a collection, not to count the number of converts, or to build a fine church, or to see that the record was all right, not to superintend or to give some authority to the work that had been done by some irresponsible evangelists, but that these young converts might receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and they prayed with them until the Spirit did come upon those who had been converted under the preaching of Philip.

Then you remember that when Paul made his journey over into Ephesus the first question (the only question v/e have any record of) was, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” He didn't go down to exalt brains, or eloquence, or creeds, or philosophies, or theologies, or robes, or rituals, or ornaments, but to minister to them and to see that they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Believe me, believe me, this is the need of the church today over all the land — the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Do not run off on one line or another, but see that this great baptism that God has given through the merits of Jesus Christ is experienced in your own soul. Are you hungry?